How to recover the required CNAME record for google apps?

Question

I just deleted all CNAME records on my domain name by mistake. Now mail.mydomainname.com point to a invalid address. Then I added a CNAME record with alias mail and make it point to ghs.google.com as the instruction given by google. But actually http://ghs.google.com point to an invalid address at google.

I remember I had a CNAME record named googlexxxxxxxx where xxxxxxxx is something like a authentication code. So where can I find that xxxxxxxx?

Answer 1

To add to @ErikA answer. There are two DNS changes that are made with Google Apps.

1. Domain Verification, which is the googleXXXXXXX.yourdomain.com you mention. This is done to confirm you are the owner of the domain, and should point to google.com.

   EXAMPLE: googleXXXXXXX.yourdomain.com => google.com
   

2. Mail, and all other apps like chat, docs, calendar etc should have a CNAME, which point to ghs.google.com. It is not a website, therefor not responding to HTTP requests.

   EXAMPLE: mail => ghs.google.com
   

To recover the googleXXXXXXX address you should just have to go to the Google Apps admin as the service should have detected the dropped validation and ask you to re-validate. You can submit the re-validation here: http://www.google.com/a/YOURDOMAIN.COM/VerifyOwnership, placing your domain in the proper spot.

The 2nd CNAMES you can just recreate as the destination is always the ghs.google.com and the pointer can be whatever you like. Just make sure they match the URL settings in the Google Apps admin.

Answer 2

Here's Google's help page on what you need to do to set up a CNAME for their Google Apps platform.